


Pitching A Tent

by Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw



Series: October Ficlet Challenge [58]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bickering, F/M, Flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 11:45:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12556688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw/pseuds/Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw
Summary: The Doctor wants to take the TARDIS. River wants to go camping.Guess who wins.Pairing: Tenth Doctor/River Song. Prompt: camping.





	Pitching A Tent

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt and beta by the top-notch imaginary_golux.

He usually had no patience for archaeology or archaeologists: why study the past when you could live it, breathe it, change it? But--there was something about Professor River Song which called to him. And perhaps he was a little lonely with Donna gone. And so when he picked up the ringing TARDIS phone to hear her voice, throaty with mystery, he accepted her invitation to join her for a dig.

He was a trifle surprised when he arrived at the coordinates she had given him. This was some sort of base camp, not an active dig site. “There you are,” she greeted him, adding a quick hug and peck on the cheek. “We’ve been waiting ages for you, but the gear is all packed up.” She turned her head to call to a fresh-faced pair of humanoids: evidently her graduate students or something similarly menial. “Alivette, Periwinkle, get your bags. We leave in ten.” She looked him over caustically. “I hope you’ll be able to hike in that suit. It’s three days across the tundra to the ruins; longer if the burros are uncooperative.”

The Doctor’s face fell. “Why don’t we just take the TARDIS? We’ll be there in five minutes.”

“Better make that twenty,” she shouted to her grad students. “Himself feels like arguing.” The two lime-green girls laughed, making the Doctor frown. “We’ll miss the meteor showers at night if we don’t hike.”

“So let’s wait here for a few days, then take the TARDIS. Save the hiking.”

“I don’t know if we should show Alivette and Periwinkle your ship; they’re a little...excitable.”

“River, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but showing the TARDIS to excitable young women is one of my favorite hobbies.”

“I’ve noticed,” she bit out. “Which is why it might be nice to spend some time together.”

“Ah. We could go somewhere else, just the two of us?” he hazarded.

She interrupted his further babbling. “And not come back for a dozen years? I’ve seen how you pilot her, and given that you’re far too young to let me at the controls, there’s no way we’ll get to where we’re supposed to be.” 

The Doctor snorted. “There is no way I would let you fly the TARDIS. I hardly know you.”

“Yet.” Her smile flashed for a moment before she straightened up. “Right, I hoped it wouldn’t have to come to this.” The Doctor tensed as she leaned in to whisper in his ear. “I didn’t pack any pajamas.”

He turned the same shade of dark purple as his shirt as River’s grad students giggled again. “Well, when you put it like that. Camping it is.”


End file.
